Sundance: Dale Dickey shines in 'A Love Song'

by Matt St Clair

If you don’t know her name, odds are you’ve probably still seen Dale Dickey pop up in shows and films you like including Best Picture nominee Winter’s Bone (2010). Even after earning slight awards traction for her role as the wife of a backwoods crime boss in the acclaimed indie, including an Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female, Dickey has remained on the precipice of famed character actordom, not quite tipping over. 

But with A Love Song, which just premiered at Sundance, Dickey finally gets a starring role to showcase her too often unsung gifts...

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Sundance: The pitch black repercussions when you 'Speak No Evil'

by Jason Adams

I don't know why people never heed the wise words of the credits to The Real World opening credits when they find themselves inside a horror movie of manners, but if we all could just stop being so damned polite and start getting real there'd be way fewer corpses dumped into the ditches of the world, and doesn't that sound a lot nicer for everybody? But no, nobody listens to the reality-programming Cassandras called Bunim and Murray, and so we end up watching people like the Danish family at the heart of Christian Tafdrup's pitch-black Sundance horror Speak No Evil, who don't speak up for themselves and pay the darkest of prices for it. Get real, world! It's for your own good...

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Sundance: Bill Nighy finds purpose in 'Living'

by Cláudio Alves

To remake a masterpiece is to invite comparison and risk redundancy. Still, filmmakers regularly throw themselves into the pit, asking for trouble. Oliver Hermanus is the latest maverick to tempt fate, joining the ranks of directors who have remade the work of Akira Kurosawa. This time around, the subject is one of the director's most beloved classics, Ikiru. It's the story of a stalwart bureaucrat who finds meaning in the last months of his life, discovering purpose in the shape of a playground when faced with the inevitability of death. The original flick is a sentimental jewel and a showcase for one of Kurosawa's favorite actors, Takashi Shimura. In 2022, the Japanese thespian shoes are filled by Bill Nighy, taking on a new version of the role that reimagines him as a British civil servant in 1952 London. 

While I can't speak for worldwide critics and cinephiles, I confess myself happily surprised by Living. No matter how distasteful the prospect of a Kurosawa remake feels, these modern artists have devised a worthy reinterpretation…

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Sundance: ‘Emergency’

By Abe Friedtanzer

 

The very legitimate fear that people of color feel when faced with the potential of confronting police has been featured in numerous films recently, both in documentary and narrative formats. In many cases, it’s a harrowing tale featuring brash reactions by law enforcement that assume the worst and end up needlessly harming those who weren’t doing anything wrong in the first place. The characters in the comedic Emergency know these truths and set out to do everything possible to avoid a tragic fate, which leads to wild hijinks…

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Here's Your Sundance 2022

by Jason Adams

The main line-up for the 2022 edition of the Sundance Film Festival was announced this afternoon -- can I get a huzzah? Running from January 20th through the 30th they'll be screening 82 feature films and assorted other cinematic ephemera over the course of those ten days -- they're keeping themselves to the middle space in between in-person and virtual for their 2022 edition, with everything premiering in person in Utah and then subsequently screening via their (truly outstanding) online platform for those of us who can't make it to the mountains, for whatever reason. Like, for instance, the still-happening pandemic, which is certainly my own personal reason for only attending virtually again this time, and which it would be irresponsible for me to not recommend you all take into account. (That said their safety protocols seem very much on point, so your own mileage may vary.) 

I've got the entire press release with the word on everything announced today way down below -- and you can check out each title even more thoroughly on the fest's website, of course -- but I figured before that megaton of information I'd go ahead and poison your opinions with my opinions, highlighting ten movies that are immediately leaping forward onto my face for one particular reason or another.  

Sharp Stick -- Lena Dunham's new movie, her first in over a decade, will surely, as with everything Dunham-related, invite enthusiastic conversation from all angles. That's one way to say it! People sure do have opinions on her and her work, and the story here... 

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